Art and the artist

IN his letter criticizing the movie academy for giving Oscar nominations to Roman Polanski (Letters, Feb. 15), David Saucedo makes the silly mistake of personalizing Polanski’s actions because Saucedo “has a 13-year-old niece.” I have a 13-year-old daughter, but I am not so limited as to confuse the Artist with the Art.

Polanski is being honored for his vision, his direction of a film that exists as a piece of art standing alone, separate from its creator. Polanski is not being honored because he lives the untouchable, untroubled, unattainable life of a saint.

If the quality or relevance of all art was contingent on the artist’s political leanings, race, religion, sanity or sexuality and its unavoidable foibles, there would be nothing to move, stimulate or teach us. Ours would be a sorry, flattened, arid culture.

Carolyn Cramer

Pasadena